How will we ever sleep at night?
The usual Open Thread rules apply: be concise, be charitable and, above all, be amusing!
Open Thread
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
WWDD
Just what would Dudley Do?
It’s the mounties agianst MAGA.
America is doomed. Oh the humanity of it all!
From the NIH: “Canadas strict gun laws… Eleven studies evaluated the effect on suicides, with 9 finding a reduction in suicide rates.“
In the news:
“Euthanasia is now the 5th leading cause of death in Canada and growing”
So the government bans guns using suicide prevention as a large part of its reasoning. Then legalizes physician assisted suicide, and soon after the “right” to die becomes the “duty to die.
Since this is an open thread, I am posting the following:
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Mea sententia peculiaris sicut civis liber.
My personal opinion as a free citizen.
I have been tasked at “Neutrons ‘R Us” (a pseudonym for my employer) to write an AI Technology Control Plan because there are obvious applications for AI in nuclear energy (see US NRC NUREG/CR-7294 and NRC Adams Accession Number ML24241A252). That said, what Father Vorderbruggen states in the thread at the X / Twitter link below is true no matter what discipline is being discussed.
https://x.com/FatherChrisVor1/status/1943717389322883141?t=0pIYXY9tnFKVRdYFZDbybA&s=19
Additionally, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin has stated the following on July 10th in behalf of Pope Leo XIV, and yes, when I sent forth my technology control plan for final review by management leaders before signature approval, I quoted this excerpt:
As AI becomes capable of adapting autonomously to many situations by making purely technical algorithmic choices, it is crucial to consider its anthropological and ethical implications, the values at stake and the duties and regulatory frameworks required to uphold those values. In fact, while AI can simulate aspects of human reasoning and perform specific tasks with incredible speed and efficiency, it cannot replicate moral discernment or the ability to form genuine relationships. Therefore, the development of such technological advancements must go hand in hand with respect for human and social values, the capacity to judge with a clear conscience, and growth in human responsibility. It is no coincidence that this era of profound innovation has prompted many to reflect on what it means to be human, and on humanity’s role in the world.
Although responsibility for the ethical use of AI systems begins with those who develop, manage and oversee them, those who use them also share in this responsibility. AI therefore requires proper ethical management and regulatory frameworks centered on the human person, and which goes beyond the mere criteria of utility or efficiency. Ultimately, we must never lose sight of the common goal of contributing to that “tranquillitas ordinis – the tranquility of order”, as Saint Augustine called it (De Civitate Dei) and fostering a more humane order of social relations, and peaceful and just societies in the service of integral human development and the good of the human family.
Because it’s open thread time: I’m in the midst of reading “The Hour of Testing: Spiritual Depth and Insight in a Time of Ecclesial Uncertainty” by Donald Haggerty, which strikes me as prophetic, to use that favorite liberal word. Has anyone here read it? any thoughts? It seems to go back to the mostly forgotten world of people devoting themselves to prayer and reparation, which Vatican II erased from the Catholic world, much to the world’s detriment.
After watching extensive youtube videos regarding the desire of the western provinces to separate from the rest of canada, the thought came to me ” how will the western provinces provide for their national defense?” The answer immediately came to me. The same way that canada has for decades, by relying on the united states and doing nothing for national defense. If it wasn’t for the hated yankees, they along with the UK and Europe could be speaking german. Or russian.
The hatred of the US in canada is not something new. My parents visited Canada back in the 70s, and had people attacking their car because of the u s plates.
I’d be frightened if they weren’t so completely irrelevant. My great-great great great great etc. grandfather knew what he was doing when he left quebec in 1823 and moved to the Michigan Territory near Fond du Lac.
Many Canadians, especially those on the Left, have a well-developed, and angry, inferiority complex when it comes to the US, and most Americans rarely think of Canada at all.
Those Canadians who do come south are often top notch. I think of my sainted Mom and the 30K Canadians who enlisted in the US military to fight in Vietnam.
Matt Fradd recently announced an AI app called Truthly, which he described as completely orthodox. I haven’t watched much of his material but I don’t think he’d make that claim casually.
Dudley would do right.
The two elements of modern Canadian culture:
1.) Being nice, in a passive aggressive way.
2.) Not being America.
That’s it when it comes to a modern national identity. I mean, what else is there? Talking about Tim Hortons and buying milk in bags?
They used to have a more extensive identity, say 30 years ago, but it was too rural and white for the modern elites to accept. Thus it has been gradually purged by politicians and mass media. There are also still regional identities, but they are no longer intrinsically intertwined with being “Canadian.” Thus there is an Albertan culture, but Albertans will continue to be Albertans even if Alberta becomes a province of the US.
Those Canadians without strong ties to a local community only can fall back on the “Canadian” identity which is inherently anti-American. So they can only double and triple down on ranting about Trump.
The English Canadians used to be Brits. Their anthem celebrated the conquest of New France.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgnZxc3QiZk
They jettisoned that to keep the Quebecois happy. What is left is the traditional antipathy for Uncle Sam which dates back to the American Loyalists settling there after they were on the losing side of the American Revolution.
“There are Canadians who speak both English and French. They’re called ‘stewardesses’.” – Jim Gaffigan
He has a few Canadian bits on YouTube.
Canada has a wretched political class conjoined to a wretched chatterati. The Canadian public has been quite passive in the face of this.
==
Canada’s self-understanding was confused by lashing the Anglophone provinces to Quebec. The two might maintain cordial business relations, but they are historically antagonistic and never belonged under one roof. Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s exercise in ‘multi-culturalism’ was the imposition of an artificial construct. Three other sources of confusion have been an elite hostile to their populace (now bog standard in the occidental world), gratuitous mass immigration, and deficient fertility (along with the forces promoting that). Canada’s agricultural population has by 1940 reached a plateau and the displaced person’s camps in Europe had closed by 1959. After that, Anglophone Canada and Quebec would have benefited from a low-flow immigration policy (issuing about 25,000 settler’s visas a year in sum and tolerating a stock of temporary residents no more than 150,000).
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/415673.php
==
Remember, ‘affordable housing’ is awardable housing.
“We, the people” of our Constitution belong to God because of our “Creator” in the Declaration of Independence.
When the Mother of God was created, Blessed Mary asked God for Perpetual Virginity, an immaculate life. God granted Mary Perpetual Virginity, an immaculate life.
Blessed Mary told Bernadette Soubirous: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” This means that Blessed Mary’s soul was present at her conception; at her pro-creation. This means that Blessed Mary has sovereign personhood from the very first moment of her existence.
Blessed Mary said: “My soul doth magnify the Lord…” This means that Mary had a free will choice to serve God in perfect obedience from the very first moment of her existence.
Blessed Mary did not say: “I magnify the Lord”, but: “My soul doth magnify the Lord.”
This means that every pro-created human being from Cain and Abel until the end of time has an immortal human soul with sovereign personhood at creation. This means that every immortal human soul at creation has sovereign personhood and that every human being has an immortal human soul at pro-creation.
Roe v. Wade never bore the burden of proof that the unborn human being misrepresented in the court of law did not have an immortal human soul with sovereign personhood.
Citizenship and a tax bill is what the state gives the sovereign human being. The state does not give sovereign personhood to the immortal human soul of the newly begotten, nor does the state give life to any member of the human species.
Roe v. Wade is an offense against God, our “Creator”.
For those that are interested, I thought I would give an update on me and my oldest son.
He has completed his community service and his anger management. He had a mental health evaluation today. I do not know how it went at this time.
We have not argued lately, but he has stayed up at night crying. He has a 9PM curfew on weeknights and 10PM weekends. It ends in October. He has taken this very hard. He has yelled at me about it, but I have not and won’t respond. I never wanted the curfew as he does not have his license yet and the 100 hours of community service were four times what the prosecution asked for.
It is his own fault and his own doing but he hasn’t had any friends in two years. My wife and I were considering sending him to a Catholic school about 30 miles away . The tuition is high but possible if my wife helps out. The car insurance is enormous. That is up in the air.
The entire situation has me depressed. My doctor asked me to try an antidepressant. I have lost my appetite and don’t feel like eating. My sleep is lousy…he wakes up at night crying and I can’t sleep afterwards.
I find myself thinking about what he will do or what he can do after this last year of high school.
As bad as he has been to everyone in my home I should not care but I do care….and it has me upset. I have a picture of him at my work desk as a baby and I can’t just forget he is my son.
My mother told me I am not mean enough. My aunt told me I am too nice…she told me that years ago.
Penguins Fan-
I don’t think you need to forget that he is your son. He will always be so, whether easy or hard.
Christ says of the father of the prodigal son,”And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion”
I have taken this to mean that the father was watching for his son – always hoping his son would come back to him, and I have never heard an interpretation of this parable where the father was blamed for any of his actions.
Hope is hard on the hoper. St Monica hoped and received great consolation in her lifetime. Others of us (yes, us) will hope and only receive consolation in the next. Nevertheless, I believe there must be great merit in hoping for the reformation of another. After all, Christ does that for all of mankind.
Penguins Fan,
I will pray for you and your son and family. I tell God that my son is really His son and I’m just borrowing him. I ask our Lord to take care of him and let me know how He wants me to handle things. It’s not always smooth; often rocky. But, in the end, I trust things will work out. Small miracles pop up from time to time to keep me going. God bless you and the family.
Penguins Fan, my biological son and daughter have nothing to do with me. I grieve for you, and I will pray for you and your son as I pray for my son and daughter.